Boardwalk
Empire
Season Three
Episode
Eight
'The Pony' -
8.5
 |
| How awesome is this?! |
To say we
just entered season three's climax would be an understatement. The murder of
Jimmy Darmody aside, the explosion and thus destruction of series-long hang-out
Babettes is one of this show's more audacious and dramatic manoeuvres, only
furthered by the fact it clearly - well, hopefully - takes out a seemingly
important recurring character. 'The Pony' looks to be the last hoorah for new
girl-on-the-block Meg Chambers Steedle, who's role as flapper-girl Billy Kent
comes to a fiery end.
I definitely
didn't have an issue with Kent, and considering she was an obstacle for Nucky
and Margaret's relationship, I probably liked her. Relatively. In fact, her
character is one of only a few that deserves to have great amounts of
exposition devoted to them, an exclusive list that includes largely unexplored
characters like Owen Sleater, Gaston Means and Gyp Rosetti, all of whom
appear tonight. Anyway, Kent actually gets a nice focus in the lead up to
her death, with 'The Pony' doing what shock-death episodes do best; making them
seem important so we don't expect them to die, as well as building up as much
sympathy as possible.
It does that
perfectly. Really, by episode's explosive end I had come to respect Billy as
strong, outspoken and occasionally hilarious, with her stand-out scenes being
her terrific audition for her first motion picture and her handling of Nucky's
violent introduction to her possible co-star. Together the scenes didn't just
prove the character as successful, but also made Steedle out to be damn good in
the role. She is almost the perfect flapper girl, as seen during her audition
where she acts out a silent movie-scenario with comedic grace and 1920's
slapstick. Very nice.
There was
something very majestic about her eventual loss, as hers is the last face we
get a good look at before the building explodes out across the boardwalk, with
Nucky's perception of sight and sound being focussed onto only her; the voices
of Rothstein, Baxter and Luciano being reduced to static murmurs, before flames
erupt from within Babettes and everything happens. It was filmed and composed
largely without originality, as from the second we see the group walking
together and the dialogue is in that pre-catastrophic state of pointlessness I
could tell hell was about to break loose. Nonetheless, when it does actually
happen it was spectacular and highly devastating.
It will come
as no surprise that the bombing was a result of - probably - Gyp Rosetti, as
he's alerted to the meeting by none other than Gillian Darmody, who is bitter
after receiving a visit from her son's killer. I think I've said it before so
far this season, but I don't think Gillian's going to make it out alive, as
she's already done the sort of acts that earned Jimmy a bullet in the brain.
I'd be sad to see Gretchen Mol out, but at the same time her character has
served a brilliant tenure on the show and is pretty much dead weight without
Jimmy.
I
appreciated the fleshing out of Van Alden's Norwegian wife, who establishes
herself as something of a criminal thinker as she prepares to go into the
liquor business for her and her husband's livelihood. At first the character
was almost a racist joke, but I've decided I don't mind her. She's a bit of
fun.
Van Alden,
or Mueller or whatever, also has some fun tonight when he goes
absolutely INSANE at his place of occupation. After running through a few
mocking jokes while doing a practice sales pitch, an unlucky colleague of
Nelson's gets one of these fancy irons pressed against his face and left
moaning and groaning on the floor as the former Prohibition agent goes schizo
throwing papers about and breaking office equipment. It was both cringe worthy
and hilarious, and not many other actors on this show can manage that, though I
have to wonder if the writers are going to explore the consequences of his
assault or not.
There was
actual plot tonight as well, as Nucky manages to avoid being arrested
again by getting the secretary for something-or-other to arrest George Remus
instead. I guess we won't get to see anymore of the third-person-speaking
whacko. No big loss there.
So, yeah.
That was a pretty fantastic ride for everyone involved, and I will definitely
be sad to see Billy Kent lost from this show, though I am happy to see that she
got to go out with an extra special bang that should have repercussions for the
remainder of the season, if not the entire show. Though I shed not a tear, I
still feel the pain.
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